Boulder, Larimer, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties -- along with the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife -- have scheduled open houses to provide information about potential locations suitable for safe recreational sport shooting. The meetings:

Residents of Boulder, Larimer, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties will get to review an effort to set criteria for identifying locations where recreational target shooting on public lands along the northern Front Range would be appropriate -- along with designating areas where officials think shooting shouldn't be allowed.

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Those four counties -- along with the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife -- have entered a partnership to develop "a multi-jurisdictional strategy to provide safe, responsible and accessible recreational sport shooting opportunities while addressing conflicts near residential areas and with other recreation users."

Work has begun on crafting that strategy, which could become a planning tool in future decisions about sites that pose recreational sport shooting opportunities.

The Northern Front Range Recreational Sport Shooting Management Partnership has scheduled four open houses to update members of the public about the project and share ideas for identifying areas that could be developed for target-shooting sites, as well as areas where such shooting should be restricted or prohibited because of safety concerns.

The criteria might wind up suggesting guidelines for local government land-use decisions about applications for developing or expanding shooting ranges on private properties.

Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner said officials would like those open houses to "really be a two-way conversation" with the people who show up.

Officials "will share the information we've gathered so far" and solicit comments from the open house attendees, Gardner said.

The target shooting that the federal government allows in most of western Boulder County's national forest lands is an issue that's drawn shooting advocates and critics to a number of Boulder County commissioners' meetings over the past several years. Some residents express alarm about the safety of continuing to allow sport shooting in such areas as Left Hand Canyon, or on a former community dump site near Nederland, or a onetime Nederland town dump off Magnolia Road.

This past Thursday, Gardner and Michelle Krezek, the Boulder County commissioners' staff deputy, hosted a meeting of representatives from the participating counties, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Forest Service.

Clear Creek County Commissioner Tim Mauck said that the partnership was formed in the hope that the jurisdictions could come up with "an organized effort to manage recreation while providing opportunities for multiple uses on public lands."

The preliminary criteria that the group is using include consideration of a site's distance from any nearby homes, campgrounds, unincorporated residential subdivisions, and neighboring cities and towns. Other criteria could include: access to the site, the availability of parking, and its distance from roads, the conditions of those roads; possible wildfire hazards; and possible environmental impacts.

Officials have emphasized that any decision won't be binding. Those decisions will still be made under each government agency's own procedures.

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